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What Causes Periorbital Dark Circles After Taking Timolol Maleate And Lumigan?

Posted on Tue, 20 Oct 2015

Question: I've been using Lumigan 0.01% for about four weeks to help lower eye pressure for glaucoma. To help my pressure even lower, I was recently told about six days ago, to use Timolol Maleate along with the Lumigan, which I did. Unfortunately, both of my eyes looks like I've been in a fight, I have black circles around and above both eyes. I did not have this with Lumigan, but using them both I think was too strong. What can I do to get rid of the black discoloration from my eyes. I have chosen not to use the Timolo Maleate until I see my eye doctor this Friday.

Answered by Dr. N K Mishra (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Lumigan is the culprit

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
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The main constituent of lumigan is Bimatoprost which in technical terms is a prostaglandin analogue. It helps in reducing the eye pressure by increasing the outflow of aqueous.

Periorbital Hyper pigmentation is a known side effect of this drug and not of Timolol Maleate.

Other side effects of lumigan are:
1.redness of eyes
2.lengthening of eye lash, increase in number and pigmentation
3.hyper pigmentation of iris
4.hyper pigmentation of peri orbital skin

But this hyper pigmentation is largerly reversible.

You can continue using timolol with Lumigan and ask your ophthalmologist to try a different combination of drugs.

We cannot take the risk of having increased pressure of the eye even for a few days as it leads to irreversible nerve damage.

Kindly consult your doctor soon.

Please get back to us for any further query.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D